Journey
by YanagiStar
Summary: I wrote an incredibly late vday fic. This is a prequel to 'heaven,' and it's late because, to tell you the truth, I forgot about it. This contains shounen ai. If you don't like it, don't read it.


Okie, well, even though I hate Valentines Day with a bitter passion, I've decided to give this V-Day fic challenge a try. Kinda late, I know!! I've been meaning to write a prequel to my current fic Heaven, and i guess this setting is as good as any. Thanks for the inspiration Ryuen ^_^

**Heaven – Prequel**

The day was February 14th and everything was calm. Or, at least, almost everything was calm.

Nuriko paced the inside of his room, thoughts flashing in and out of his head quickly. He was worried about Hotohori. 

For months on end his advisors had been planning and scheming a way for Hotohori to settle down and chose a nice empress, but so far nothing had happened. Nuriko could sense the extreme loneliness that his emperor felt, could see the sadness in his eyes. And he wanted to fix that.

He flitted around his room, pulling various objects out of his desk, or out of his cupboards. A few minutes later he had himself nicely settled on the floor with a container of salt and a leather-bound book in his hands. The room was dimly lit with a few candles, flickering ominously. 

He pulled the lid off the glass bottle of salt and poured a circle of it around himself. He then proceeded to flip through the pages in his book until finally he stopped and smiled, having found the correct page. He opened his mouth and began the incantation.

Having said the last arcane word, he felt his body go rigid. Swirling lights filled the room, and the candles winked out. The lights in the room dimmed down to the point where an ethereal form was clearly seen in the middle of the room.

'Little willow, what is it that you seek me for?'

Nuriko blinked and swallowed hard. 'You can give Hotohori-sama happiness, can't you?'  

'I can do what you ask of me. Whether or not that will deliver happiness is out of my hands…'

'But you'll do what I want?' Nuriko stared into what appeared to be the spirit's eyes.

'Yes,' the spirit replied. 'But be aware that all magick has consequences.'

Nuriko smiled brightly. 'Hai, hai! Just, just make sure that Hotohori-sama finds a woman to be his empress today. And… make it someone good, not any of those catty little girls.' He wrinkled his nose in disgust. 'Ummm… Houki. Make him fall in love with Houki. Today, no later.'

The spirit eyed Nuriko carefully. 'Are you sure that this is what you wish?'

'Yes,' Nuriko said, resolved. 'Yes, I am sure.'

Nuriko entered the dining hall for lunch, and was not surprised to see the Hotohori laughing and engaging in conversation with a small, purple-haired woman. Eyeing the scene, he felt a small tug on his heart. 

_Stop it,_ he thought to himself. _You know that this is how it has to be!_

And yet, he couldn't bear to stay and watch, so he turned on his heel and walked dejectedly to his room.  

Nuriko had spent the remainder of the day in his room, not even bothering to send away for food. He wasn't aware he had fallen asleep until he was bolting upright in bed, shaking like a leaf. He was experiencing the weirdest feeling, like his soul was being chipped away, piece by piece. It wasn't really painful, but it left him with a feeling of growing emptiness.

He pulled himself out of bed and made his way slowly to the door. He stood there for awhile, trying to figure out what could make him feel this way. He remembered the incantation from the day before, and how the spirit had warned him against the consequences. He never did bother asking what those consequences would be. Surely it couldn't be Hotohori's soul being destroyed?

He couldn't take that chance. He raced out into the hallway, nearly knocking a young serving girl to the floor. He thought her name might be Ryuen, but he couldn't quite recall.

Nuriko searched the palace for Hotohori. First he checked Hotohori's bedroom, and then Miaka's, but there was still no sign of him. It was like a game of hide and seek gone horribly wrong. Finally, having searched everywhere else, he made his way down the steps into the palace basement.

Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, he scanned the giant room for sign of Hotohori. It wasn't that hard to find him, for he stood in the center of the room, naked from the waist up, eyes as blank as stone. The spirit from before stood close by him. 

'Hotohori-sama!' Nuriko ran to him and flung himself into Hotohori's arms. 

Well, he actually had his arms wrapped tightly around Hotohori's waist, and he was hunched over so that his face was pressed to his midsection. Tears were running down his face.

'Why does the little willow weep for the serpent?' The spirit was shocked by this display of affection.

'You're trying to take Hotohori-sama away!' Nuriko glared at the spirit.

The spirit laughed. 'No, he'll still be here! But you must stop calling this body by the name of Hotohori-sama. For that won't be his anme any longer.'

'What do you mean?' Nuriko asked

The spirit eyed him gravely. 'I told you earlier that magick has consequences. Well, the consequence of this particular incantation was age. Specifically, the soul of the body n question ages, well before it's time is up. So you see, while his body is still young and fresh, his soul is not, and we must remove it and replace it with a new one. I'm giving you a gift by leaving his body the way it is. Now, why are still crying?'

Nuriko shook his head bitterly. 'Don't you inderstand? If you take away his soul, he won't be Hotohori-sama any more! He won't be the kind emperor that I love. He might be cruel, and mean, it won't matter what his bodylooks like! And you think all this is okay? You think this is a gift?'

'I'm sorry, nothing can be done. I've already started the paralysis, so he won't be able to move an inch until the replacement is complete. Please step aside, little willow.'

Nuriko stared into the spirit's eyes. 'No.' He shook his head. 'No. If you're going to take someone's soul, then you're going to take mine!' 

The spirit had never seen seuch a display of loyalty and love and was quite shocked to say the least. 'I'm afraid I can't do anything now. It's too late.'

'No… it's not too….. late.' 

Nuriko felt a hand brush his hair, and a strained voice call from above him. 'Hotohori-sama?' He looked up and was amazed to see the blank look gone from Hotohori's eyes.

'Hai. It's me.' Hotohori smiled gently at Nuriko and then regarded the spirit. 'If you can…. do all… of this, then can't…. you just… erase it altogether?'

'Well, it's certainly not in my policy, but yes I can.' The spirit shook it's head. 'Never before have I seen someone break free of the paralysis. You have a very strong heart. So yes, I will erase the effects of the spell. No one will remember this except for the two of you. Houki will forget, and so will your advisors and the other shichiseishi.' The spirit smiled at Nuriko one last time. 'Please remember this, little willow, when you feel the need to perform an incantation again.'

And with that the spirit was gone. Hotohori had been expecting some kind of blinding pain, or at least some white lights, but nothing of the sort presented itself. He looked around for Nuriko, who had somehow untangled himself from around Hotohori's waist during the exchange with the spirit. He heard a distinctive sobbing coming from one of the darkened corners and her hurried over to it.

'Nuriko,' he said, laying a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. 'Nuriko, look at me.' 

Nuriko complied and gave Hotohori a sorrowful look. It was plain to Hotohori that Nuriko loved him, and had for awhile, and it tore at his heart to think that he had caused this beautiful creature such pain.  

'Gomen ne, Hotohori-sama,' Nuriko said, holding back his tears. 'I only wanted you to be happy. I didn't know that this would happen!' 

Hotohori puled Nuriko into a warm embrace. 'Nuriko… You really did all of that for me? No one has ever been so kind.'

They stayed tight in each other's arms for quite some time, before a silent agreement was made and their lips met for the first, but not last time that night.

~owari~

okay! It's finally, finally done!!! Like I said before, it's the prequel to my fic titled Heaven. So if you're not afraid of a little adult entertainment written by someone who is well under the age limit, then go check it out!!


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